When research meets practice: from human brain connections toward a neuroscientific approach to clinical psychology. Current status and future prospects

One of the major challenges of modern neuroscience is to define the complex pattern of neuralconnections that underlie cognition and behaviour. Human brain connectome is a modern approachto explain the complex architecture of mind. Normal brain functions are characterized bycontinuous and significant network evolution, as well us, brain lesions or dysfunctions may provokedramatic changes in these neural networks. The aim of clinical neuroscience research, actually, is tostudy cortico-subcortical brain structure involves in cognitive and affective functions by multimodalbrain imaging methods and neuropsychological assessment both in normal subjects and patients.From these considerations, the symposium focuses on integration between neuroscience and clinicalpsychology. Specifically, in the first paper from the University of Padua, a novel approach toclinical severity assessment will be presented. In particular the possibility to evaluate the severity ofa psychopathological symptom in a objective way through fMRI and ECG measures will bepresented. In the second paper, the group from Pisa will show how clinical neuropsychology iscrucial for the differential diagnosis in idiopathic Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (iNPH). Theclassical behavioural tasks seem to discriminate functioning of the interhemispheric processing iniNPH patients who typically have squeezing and stretching of the callosal fibers. The studyproposed by University Hospital of Pisa try to approach diagnosis in DOC with the contribution ofa longitudinal single-case fMRI investigation. The last contribution from University of Messina,highlights how in clinical practice, the multimodal approach – clinical neuropsychology, nTMS andDTI fiber tracking - may be contributed to show structural and functional reorganization of neural networks in patients with brain tumors involving perisylvian areas of the left hemisphere, in order tooptimize clinical decision making for specific patient.